Going down to the gym & working out hard is essentially one of the key elements that's going to help you get some way toward your goals.However you got to be smart, "beasting yourself" for extended periods & not refuelling or over training can have an adverse effect on your body,Cortisol can get get released into the body breaking down muscle & using the muscle as a fuel source causing you to go into a "catabolic state", as a result of that your body gets better at storing more fat usually around the thighs, love handles & abdominal area....

"Johnny come lately" pay attention the gym is not just a January quick fix...Cortisol is normally present in the body, at higher levels in the morning, and at its lowest at night. If your'e the type gets up in the morning without grumbling just before your alarm goes off then your levels are probably nice & high, if you snooze a few times & curse that you're not getting enough sleep then you've probably got low levels of cortisol in the morning..not good) Although stress isn’t the only reason that cortisol is secreted into the bloodstream, it has been termed “the stress hormone” because it’s also secreted in higher levels during the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response to stress, and is responsible for several stress-related changes in the body. Small increases of cortisol do have some positive effects though.

While cortisol is an important and helpful part of the body’s response to stress, it’s important that the body’s relaxation response to be activated so the body’s functions can return to normal following a stressful event.Increased abdominal fat, is associated with a greater amount of health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body. You can learn to relax your body with various stress management techniques, and you can make lifestyle changes in order to keep your body from reacting to stress in the first place.

In terms of exercise after you've done 35-40 minutes of weight training this is the time to do Interval training.This is a type of workout that alternate high-intensity levels with lower-intensity, an example of this is using the "Concept 2 Rowing machine" & doing 30 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest, keeping your watts very consistent for say 200 watts for 12-15 intervals, this can be set up very easily on the rowing machine & keeps going till you stop, it's a great way of burning fat & keeping the dreaded "stress hormone" Cortisol at bay. Here are a few exercises that you can do intervals with ...

1) Shuttle Runs.

Shuttle RunsGet 6-8 x risers that you normally find in your gym studio & stack them up, pick a nice distance say 12-15 meters away, Find a pace that suits you & run / jog & collect one riser back to the starting position repeat till all risers are stacked up, time how long it takes you to complete the set, (say it takes you 1:30 sec) rest using that said time & repeat.

2) Boxing intervals

Boxing : Hit the bag for say 30 seconds, rest for 1 minute so that's a work rest ratio of 1:2, make this longer depending on your fitness level.

Boxing Base lift.

Boxing base lift,Great overall body exercise, if you got one of these in your gym then try this out. grab the upright part pull out from the base, then put on the floor, pause pick back up & put back in the base, see how many times you can do that in 1minute, then rest for up to 2 minutes & repeat.

Rowing machine Intervals

Rowing machineAs stated before.. get on the "Concept 2 Rowing machine" & do 30 seconds of work followed by 30 secondsof rest, keeping your watts very consistent for say 200 watts for 12-15 intervals. keeping the stroke rate to only 12 strokes in 30 seconds

Spin bike or Upright bike

Spin Bike/ recline bikework for 1 minute recover by going slowly for up to 2 minutes, Pick your watts or turn the resistance dial up on the spin bike a couple of times, on your recovery turn the dial down or reduce the watts. you getting the picture now?

B.O.S.U side step

B.OS.U ball side step "my personal favourite"15 steps each side in 30 seconds, rest on top of the ball for 30 seconds & repeat for 4-8 repetitions, this is very hard but very rewarding, will post a video on this, to show you how to do it correctly, so please look out for it in the video section.

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